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February 28, 2005
Not good news
Bin Laden Asks Zarqawi to Make U.S. a Target
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has fairly recently asked his chief ally in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to consider the territory of United States as a target for terrorist attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Monday."There has been communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi with bin Laden suggesting to Zarqawi the U.S. homeland as a target," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said the communication was "a fairly recent development" and contained no specific threat to the United States. But the official declined to provide details for fear of compromising U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned state officials around the country that the government had received nonspecific information about al Qaeda's plans to attack the United States.
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department had sent out a classified intelligence bulletin to state homeland security advisers over the weekend to give details of "recent credible but nonspecific" threat information.
"This nonspecific information reiterates al Qaeda's desire to potentially target the homeland," Roehrkasse said.
He said the information was still being analyzed by the intelligence community but it was not enough to cause any increase in the terrorism alert level.
"Based on this information, the Department of Homeland Security has no plans to raise the threat level," he said.
Posted by Mike at February 28, 2005 05:40 PM
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